PDF2ID Enterprise – Learn How to Batch convert PDF to InDesign by setting up the workflow automation system

PDF2ID Enterprise from Recosoft is used to Batch convert 1000's of PDFs to InDesign format on a daily basis. Once the system is set up, it automates your entire workflow environment. This tutorial explains how to batch convert PDFs to IDML and InDesign format and setting up PDF2ID Enterprise so that Hot and Watch folders can be defined and disks can be mounted from a server and the converted PDFs sent to the correct output location. Multiple watch folders can be set and multiple notifications can be set also. Batch converting pdfs to indesign is easy with PDF2ID Enterprise.

PDF2ID Enterprise operates with the Desktop version of InDesign and comes with an interface tailored for workflow automation.

So, here we have InDesign running with PDF2ID Enterprise installed. PDF2ID Enterprise is a plug-in for InDesign and installs a couple of commands in the File menu of InDesign. What we want to do is choose the Batch Convert PDFs command from the “File” menu in InDesign which was added by PDF2ID Enterprise .

The PDF2ID Batch Processor window appears at this point. This window allows you to setup your workflow to convert thousands of PDFs; once your workflow is set, you can let it run 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

Lets just go over the interface quickly.

The PDF2ID batch processor window has 3 distinct areas: The top area is the Conversion List. The Conversion List shows the folders and files that have been added which you want converted. Towards the bottom is the Options area. The Options area allows you to specify conversion options; folder options; notification options; and server settings. Finally, towards the right we have the Conversion Controls. The Conversion controls are what you use to Add and Remove files and folders to convert and start/stop conversions.

What we’re going to do is add a folder filled with PDFs and set it up as a “Watch” or actually a “HOT” folder and demonstrate how once things are setup, your conversions are automated.

What we’re going to do first is click Add Target Folder. Clicking this allows us to add folders that we’d like processed that contain PDF files. Lets just click Add Target Folder and select any folder and click OK.

Now, what we want to do is specify the location where the converted files should be placed and also set this as a “Watch” folder so that every time a PDF file is added, its automatically processed.

We first select the folder from the Conversion List then click “Folder Options” to expose the settings in the Folders panel.

We immediately see a “Set Destination folder” and a path has been pre-defined. Lets set a custom location. We click “Set Destination folder” and specify the output location.

Now, lets mark “Set as Watch folder” and specify that this folder should be watched at all times so that any new PDF file added to this folder is automatically processed and converted.

We’re all set now, so we can click “Convert Selected” or “Convert All” and the batch conversion begins.

The batch processing progress bar appears and you can see it perform PDF to InDesign or actually IDML conversions. Look at the speed as it progressing. I’m running this on a 3-year-old MacBook Pro.

You’ll notice that the files have been converted. Lets just observe the results by checking the Output folder we set. We observe that all of the PDF files have been converted to InDesign format with the folder structure properly set with every image being placed into a sub folder. Neat!

Lets now observe the Watch folder in action. What we’re going to do is demonstrate this by moving a few PDF files into the Watched folder.

So, lets just move the files in from any folder to the Watched folder; Voila we see that the conversions take place on their own; this is fully automated.

You can setup multiple watch folders, have them mounted from a server disk and PDF2ID Enterprise will take care of everything. You now know how to setup a system to convert 1000’s of PDFs to IDML or InDesign format using PDF2ID Enterprise.

Finally, we want to introduce a few advanced features in PDF2ID Enterprise.

First and foremost are the Notification options. You can configure PDF2ID Enterprise to send email to a specific address as conversions are processed. You can set this per folder and you can also specify whether you want email sent after converting every single file. All we need to do is specify the “recipient email” and click Add recipient details. You can even define custom messages by entering a custom message to send.

Next, are the performance options. By default the conversion type is set to IDML format; and we recommend you leave it as IDML as then the conversions are extremely fast. IDML, as everyone knows is the InDesign Markup file and anything above InDesign CS4 can read and process these files; furthermore, many other systems accept IDML files readily.

Finally we have “Restart conversion server” setting. PDF2ID Enterprise is made of 2 parts. The user interface you see and the actual conversion server. The conversion server performs the actual conversions and you never see it operate. Its what we call a background process and it never interfaces with InDesign.

You can specify how often the conversion server should be restarted. By default its set to 50 but its up to you. As the server keeps on processing PDFs, the performance does degrade; thus we recommend that the server be restarted. Restarting the conversion server is extremely fast and has very little impact on the overall system performance.

To Sum up, you’ve now learned to use PDF2ID Enterprise to automate your workflow to convert 1000’s of PDFs everyday with very little setup.

PDF2ID has been engineered and developed by Recosoft. For more information visit us at www.recosoft.com